Redefine carbon footprint

DDB China Group took over a busy pedestrian crossing and placed a large canvas featuring a leafless tree on the road. On either side of the crossing were sponge cushions soaked in green environmentally-friendly washable and quick dry paint.
As pedestrians walked towards the crossing they stepped on the sponges and the soles of their feet made footprints on the tree. Each green footprint added to the canvas like leaves growing on a bare tree. By walking they could create a greener environment.

Nice way of re-language carbon footprint to green footprint ;-)

Source: good and campaignbrief.com/asia

BP Branding Problem

BP stated in their 2005 Environmental Statement: Gelsenkirchen‘s commitment to health, safety, environmental protection and quality as the nr.1 priority:
“No accidents, no harm to our employees or our neighbours, no damage to the environment, high product quality for our customers”.
Before that in 2000 BP introduced the new logo. The logo was designed by Landor and featured as a blossoming flower reflecting the company’s environmental responsibility. Bright and bold, the identity evokes natural forms and energy that represent, respectively, BP’s position as an environmental leader and its goal of moving beyond the petroleum sector. British Petrol was transformed into Beyond Petrolium.

Painful to see that non of the above seems to pass the test of reality.

Reason for Greenpeace to start a online campaign, a design competition to redesign the BP brand. The competition was originally initiated as a protest to BP’s plans to invest in Alberta Tar Sands (the dirtiest oil form), wrecking the Canadian boreal forest. But with Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, the competition got a lot more attention and response. And, as you could expect, the result are pretty indiscriminating, if not to say radical. The tag lines show anger with: ‘Broken Promises’,  ‘British Poison’, ‘Bloody Planet’ and ‘Biological Pathogen’.
It’s also a nice example of crowd sourcing

You can watch the results here

111 Coke bottles make 1 chair

Ok, a fiew posts back I showed you the problem with bottled water and what the bottles do with the environment. Now Coca Cola comes with a solution to turn bottles into a chair. The 111 Navy Chair is based on the original aluminum 1006 Navy Chair, designed by Emeco for the U.S. Navy in 1944. The current version is a collaboration between Emeco and Coca Cola, and is made from 111 recycled plastic Coke bottles. It is expected to keep three million plastic Coke bottles out of landfills each year.
I like the design of the chair and I like the concept!
But there’s a catch. The chair is available at dwr.com and it’s going for $ 230,- (and € 232,- at directdesign.nl). Witch, I think, is a lot of money and makes the project sound more like a temporary fashinoable item used as a greenwashing PR stunt from Coca Cola, than realy finding a solution for the bottle waste problem.

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Check these sites for more info:
emecowithcoke.com
111navychair.com
emeco.net

Inspiration-snack #30

Rewrap is a 100% biodegradable eco friendly designer sleeves for your laptop. Check it out!
www.rewrap.com

Puma’s Clever Little Bag

Puma collaborated with Ives Behar’s fuse project to design ‘the next’ sustainable shoebox. With the “clever little bag”, Puma kicks-off the next pivotal phase of its’ sustainability program.  The tens of millions of shoes shipped in the bag will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level alone by more than 60% per year. In other words: approximately 8,500 tons less paper consumed, 20 million Megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million liters less fuel oil used and 1 million liters of water conserved. During transport 500,000 liters of diesel is saved and lastly, by replacing traditional shopping bags the difference in weight will save almost 275 tons of plastic.
Good concept, nice design! It’s always good to re-think the way we make things. And the next step would be if the bag could be the source for a new product.

Source: Fubiz

Bottled water, the new oil #2

I’ve reported about the paradox of bottled water before in the post Bottled water, the new oil.
There is something strange about water in a bottle. You have the feeling to be buying a pure and clean ’source’ product, which is healthier and cleaner than ordinary tap water. But the opposite is the truth. Here’s 2 other examples explaining why bottled water is in fact a environmental disaster. (If watching the video consumes too much time for you, just stick to the info graphic, it basically tells the same story).
This film is from the creators of ‘the story of stuff‘, also a very nice film that’ll make you think about how we produce and consume.

The Story of Bottled Water, was released on March 22, 2010 on World Water Day

Also check the story of bottled water website
Info graphic via onlineeducation.net

A film made by (over) 20 filmmakers

COALITION OF THE WILLING is a web-based film made by a network of over 20 collaborating artists and filmmakers from around the world. Started in February the film is being released in 6 staggered  waves 2 weeks apart, with 4-5 sections up-loaded in each wave. The releases can be followed on Twitter and Facebook and. The result can be watched on this website. Coalition of the Willing is an, as the creators cal it, ‘animated film about an online war against global warming in a post-Copenhagen world.’
Good initiative with an interesting visual outcome.

Source: Coalition of the willing

Cradle 2 Cradle, what is that?

It’s been a while that I’ve been publishing anything, but here’s a new post (FINALY!!!!!). Oh well, a lot has been going on lately and I just didn’t get around to it. Changed jobs in the past months. Twice. And now I work @ Reggs. (check out the site www.reggs.com)
So lets start off with a project I’ve been working on last month. It’s a film that explains what Cradle to Cradle is about. Enjoy the show

Cardboard Wine box/table

Linkdesign Amsterdam designed this cardboard wine box/table for Dutch online shop design4wine.nl. The shop is also an initiative of Linkdesign together with a wine buyer. Again, a different way of ROI (return on investment) for a design agency.
Nice sustainable interior design object. (and you know how I feel about cardboard by now ;-). It’s also available with custom top. Check for details design4wine.nl. (in Dutch only)

Also read these and these story’s about cardboard on this blog.

For the love of carboard

Ok, you probably know by now this blog is, for a small part, dedicated to the best non-material ever: cardboard. So I just had to show you the work of British designer Gilles Miller. I stumbled upon his work through an article on designboom.

I used the images of Gilles Miller’s website and I also I took the courtesy to rip of some of the pictures of website of designboom, taken during the London Designweek 2009.

Check Gilles Miller’s website
Also read  these storys on this blog